ABD calls for Vehicle Excise Duty reforms
The Alliance of British Drivers has urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to remove Vehicle Excise Duty on cars older than 12-years in today’s spending review.
It has said that removing VED on older vehicles would provide more effective support to UK car buyers than introducing new incentives for electric cars.
ABD policy director Brian Gregory believes the ‘wheels are falling off the whole net zero shambles’ and says the more sustainable solution is keeping older cars on the road.
However, Dunstan Power, director of ByteSnap Design and its electric vehicle charging division, Versinetic, said: “It is true that keeping vehicles on the road has environmental benefits, as new car production has a significant impact. However, older cars tend to also be the most polluting, so this is a complex trade-off.
“It is bizarre however, to suggest that electrification is a threat to energy security when the reverse is true – fossil fuels are predominately sourced from abroad and all supplies are finite and increasingly difficult to mine.
“Electrification and renewables are actually paths to energy security. EV car prices are tumbling, EVs outlast their petrol equivalent and have a fraction of the running costs. Norway shows that it is possible for countries to transition away from legacy petrol vehicles where there are sufficient tax incentives and once that is done future generations will probably scratch their heads and wonder what all the fuss was about.”
